During the holy month of Ramadan, though official pace of work has been decelerated in offices of all buildings of Sindh secretariat yet the work of gifting Khajoor (dates) to another has been geared-up there. When you enter in any office of Sindh secretariat, you can find well-packed small cartons of Khajoor there, while peons were engaged in loading the said cartons in the vehicles of their officers.
The importance of dates is enhanced every year due to the holy month of Ramadan because in this month dates are used as very special fruit during the time of Sehree and Iftaar. With starting of dates season from 1st July 2011, gifting of dates has been initiated in corridors of politicians, bureaucrats, business community and landlords of Sindh as the people of the said circles are gifting Khajoor (dates) to each other which reflected more cordiality in all kinds of relations.
Many politicians have named it with "Khajoor diplomacy" and said that gifting Khajoor to each other especially in the month of Ramadan creates relation of love and care between the family members, friends, relatives, colleagues and party friends. A large number of politicians/landlords are popular in gifting the Khajoor (dates) from their areas to bigwigs of politics, bureaucracy, civil and armed forces, business community and other friends and relatives. Particularly the politicians belonging to Khairpur Mir's and Sukkur are very famous in this regard; their relatives, friends and colleagues used to do wait for their gift packs of dates.
Khairpur Mirs's and Sukkur districts are more popular in production of dates, according to the report compiled by Sindh Agriculture Department. 229,674 tonnes dates had been produced only in district Khairpur Mir's in 2010 whereas Sukkur is second major district for the production of dates where 30,008 tonnes production had been recorded in 2010, report stated.
The bureaucracy of Islamabad used to taste the Khajoor (dates) being gifted by Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah. Similarly, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Minister for Home Manzoor Hussain Wasan and other politicians of Khairpur Mir's are well-known in the gifting of Khajoor.
We can't forget the name of head of Pakistan Muslim League Functional (PML-F) Pir Pagara who is also sending gifts of good variety of dates of Khairpur Mir's to their friends and relatives. The politicians of Ghotki, Naushehroferoze and other districts are also fond of gifting dates because the said districts are big producers of dates in Sindh after Sukkur and Khairpur Mir's. 5,266 tonnes dates have been produced in Ghotki, whereas 473 tonnes production of dates was re-recorded in Naushehro Feroze district in 2010.
Besides, other districts of Sindh there are also producers of dates, 396 tonnes dates has been produced in Benazir Bhutto Abad (Nawabshah) district, 363 in Shikarpur district, 1,240 in Larkana, 218 in Mirpurkhas, 514 in Jamshoro, 254 in Matiari, 47 in Tandoallahyar, 40 in Badin, 75 in Thatta and 209 tonnes production of dates were recorder in Karachi.
A grower from Kahirpur Mir's told Business Recorder that more than 20 verities of dates including Rukann, Toto, Puprro, Panjmel, Karbalainn, Aseel, Khaark, Dang, Mithrree, Badam Khaarak, Katal and others are available in the market while Badam Khajoor is main item which used to be gifted so far. Not only the bigwigs of politics but also many big names of bureaucracy and business community are also fond of gifting the dates to their beloved ones.
Moreover, the officials of Irrigation, Agriculture and Food departments particularly used to demand from growers for the best varieties of dates for their personal use and for gifting to others. A landlord of date's orchard told Business Recorder that a politician, keeping his name as secret, made Senator due to gifting of dates of my orchard to his party head. Said politician used to gift different verities of dates to his party head and other important personalities every year, he concluded.
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